Manager of art exhibit needs a new job.

In Grand Rapids Greg Gilmore owns and runs an art show. I wonder why, since he doesn’t seem to get the meaning of art. One of the pieces at the art show this year was an effigy of Saddam Hussein hanging inside a bird cage.

No. Wrong. Even if you decide you don’t want his piece in your show, you store the piece and ask the artist to come pick it up. That is someone else’s property that you invited to have in your show. You don’t get to destroy other people’s stuff.

Why’d he do it?

“I was infuriated,” Gilmore said. “He took advantage of us. And we trusted him after the last several years and the art that he brought, that it would be tasteful, and it was anything but.’

Gilmore said he and The B.O.B. did not get what they expected.

“We thought it was going to be a bird house that he was painting in on a daily basis,” said Gilmore. “And it was a political statement. Highly inappropriate daily political statement.”

Piss on Greg Gilmore. Art has been an important political tool for the whole of human history. It’s purpose is to stir our emotions and to make us ponder things in a way the rest of the censorious world can’t. It often deals with subjects that are taboo. In so doing, it helps us to explore the full range of thought and of human instinct. Art is not good because it allows you to be comfortable. In fact, some of the most important pieces in history were phenomenal in large part to their ability to make people uncomfortable. The owner of an art show should’ve learned this ages ago.

If you think art that you deem inappropriate or that you deem to be a political statement should get thrown in the trash, it’s time to get out of art. Yes, it’s Gilmore’s show. His show sucks, and I hope every other artist in Michigan avoids it henceforth.